Driver Dies After Bypassing Barricade and Falling 100 Feet into Gorge Along Interstate Damaged By Helene
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11/12/2024 04:36 PM
The North Carolina driver was airlifted to a Tennessee hospital but died
Junaluska Fire Department/Facebook
A driver died over the weekend after she bypassed a barricade enacted after Hurricane Helene damaged a North Carolina highway and crashed into a gorge, authorities said.
Patricia Mahoney was near the Tennessee state line on Saturday, Nov. 9, when she made a wrong turn and drove off Interstate 40 from a large hole in the roadway, landing in the Pigeon River Gorge, ABC affiliate WLOS-TV, CBS affiliate WFMY and the Associated Press.
In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, the Junaluska Community Volunteer Fire Department said the vehicle went "off the roadway and down an embankment" before coming to a stop about 100 feet from the road.
"She drove through that cable and then right off the interstate," Junaluska Fire Chief Charles Wood told WLOS-TV. "No skid marks, no nothing. It doesn't look like she hit the brakes or anything."
Related: 11 Members of the Same Family Killed During Hurricane Helene: 'An Unimaginable Tragedy'
Multiple agencies responded to the accident, including the North Carolina Highway Patrol, WLOS-TV reported. The woman was reportedly freed from her SUV through the sunroof and was flown to a nearby hospital in Tennessee, but died from her injuries.
It's unclear at this time what caused the woman to go around the barricade.
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Amid an investigation into the accident, police are urging other drivers to heed signage in the area, whose roadways were devastated by flooding from the hurricane in September.
"The traffic patterns down there are completely changed due to the storm," Wood said of the damaged roads.
Two months after the storm, road closures continue throughout western North Carolina, WRAL News reported. Officials are warning residents to avoid travel through the affected areas.
